Skype

Skype Operated by Thieves and Liars/Website Not Secure/No Customer Support

By low tolerance - 04/17/2010

I have been a Skype customer since 2008. Originally purchased credit, then switched to unlimited monthly plan. The call quality was often poor, but the price was cheap. Figured you get what you pay for. Recently, some of my credit went missing. Tried to find somewhere on their site to contact them and find out where my money went, but found no way to do so. I had to search google, and finally found a post on yahoo answers by another frustrated person that had the same problem. Had to go to a third party site to find out how to contact them (the site is only partially encrypted and is not secure).

They had billed me for an SMS to a number I never heard of. I didn't even know what an SMS was, and certainly never sent one. I consider this a fraudulent charge by Skype. Asked for return of my missing money which was only a dime, but it was MY dime and the remainder of my credit.

After spending far too much of my time responding to the obfuscating emails informing me of everything except how to get my money back, they told me that they were refusing to return the monies they were holding. It was 64 cents, but it was MY 64 cents, they didn't work for it.

They lied by billing for a service that was never rendered (fraud) to get part of my money and flat-out stole the remainder by refusing to return any of it. I am forever finished with Skype. Perhaps they think that people will not bother with a missing dime here or 50 cents there. I however, have principles and am ethically minded. I have canceled my account.

After reading from the multitude of complaints about Skype stealing other people's money, I took the precautions of calling my credit card company to cancel card used for Skype purchase and had them re-issue with a new account number. Also made sure to log in to Paypal account where original monies were transferred from and canceled billing agreement to ensure that they did not steal more money from me, as has happened to countless others. You can't be overly careful when dealing with these criminals. Beware, chances are good it is only a matter of time before they get around to you as well.

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Shafted by Skype; Poor Customer Support!

By kshdzines - 03/08/2009

I have to jump in here and tell of my nerve wracking, excruciating experience with Skype Customer Support. To begin with, I received a notice on February 24th my online number was about to expire on March 2nd. I immediately went to my account because I knew I had a $30 discount/credit off an online number. I tried to use my discount and it kept taking me to payment options. There was no option to use my credit.

I wrote customer service and explained what I was trying to do. Here is their reply: "Hello **. Thank you for contacting Skype Support. We understand your concern. The discount from your subscription will automatically be deducted from the sum for the extension of your online number."

I went back and tried it again; it still would not let me use the "promised" discount stated right in my account. I then wrote the representative back and explained again it would not work. I soon got this reply: "Hello **. Thank you for contacting Skype Support. The reason for that is because you have to pay for this number. This is why you are redirected to Paypal."

(Remember, I already have paid for my online number that is about to expire.) Do you see where he totally changed his story around? The next thing I know, 5 minutes later, I get a notice from my PayPal account that I had sent $7.95 to Skype!? (by the way, my auto pay was disabled, but they took it anyway) What??? Now I am really furious. I write back and get NO answer in 3 days.

I go back and submit another ticket hoping I will get a different representative. I explained I wanted my $7.95 returned unless they can give me my $30 discount for my online number, and I also send copies of all correspondence between me and **.

Now I get a response from another representative who returns my $7.95 and ends my service!? I go back to my account and guess what? They also removed my $30 discount I never got to use and had been trying to use for the last 10 days.

I just wrote them back and told them how WRONG they are and how BADLY they have done me. I can not believe they get away with this. I had that $30 discount in my account for 2 months and planned on using to to renew my online number, but not one representative could help me with this issue; not one of them. They all avoided me for 10 days. I just wrote them my last letter before I came here to post this.

I do NOT recommend Skype service to anyone. Aside from the customer support, I lost connection many, many times while in the middle of a conversation. The service all the way around stinks! Is it any surprise as to why they do not have a customer support phone number, or email addresses to the owner?

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Skype Steals "Credits"

By Cindy - 03/04/2014

Rating: 1/51

I had a Skype account, only used it once, although I had put $10 down as a credit. They still owed me $9 and some change. I got an email announcing my credits had "expired" and all I had to do was sign into my account and click on the "retrieve credits" icon. Unfortunately, there is no such icon, and the account they want me to access isn't even the same one I put credits on. I have had multiple emails from them each claiming they will "absolutely help" with this problem, but no one seems to actually read the previous email and their solutions do not work because they aren't really solutions.

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Skype Outrageous Charge of 40 Pounds for Phone Support!

By Mika - 08/24/2013

Rating: 1/51

UK, HAWAII -- I needed some support with 2 accounts which was impossible to do by yourself. I called the free UK Skype support line.They wanted to charge me minimum 40 pounds per account (total of 80 pounds or higher). I believe it's outrageous! I spend on my Skype calls hundreds of euros over the years, and as a loyal paying customer I expect you (Skype) to give me assistance without asking anything for it! Apparently the phone line is operated by a 3rd party company, hence the charge. Microsoft now owns Skype (in a $8.5 billion deal). Therefore my complaint is toward Microsoft's behavior here. This is the truth.

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Non-Renewal of Subscription

By info5406 - 06/30/2013

Rating: 1/51

I have has Unlimited European subscription for several years with automatic renewal. Yesterday I found that my service no longer works. Apparently the card on my account had expired and so as the renewal payment did not go through my service was ended without any warning or notification of a problem.

I contacted Customer Service - haha - and was told to add the subscription to my account again and that my telephone number would be renewed as it was already part of my package. Last year I paid £33 - this year it cost £58 and the number was NOT included. The system wanted me to pay about another £35 to renew the number as well!

I contacted Skype again and was told there was nothing they could do. Skype numbers are no longer included in the Subscription and because mine had lapsed it cannot be renewed and I have to pay for both services. An increase of over 100% in a year. A formal complaint by email got an initial standard reply that had nothing to do with my complaint and the second reply was basically 'tough luck'.

I have cancelled the subscription renewal and will transfer the number to another provider. What can anyone do about the mighty Microsoft organisation? Well, I can certainly publish this story on as many sites as I can to warn others. I think this is just a way to get people onto the new more expensive packages.

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Skype Is Useless Waste of Much Time

By Steven - 05/28/2013

Rating: 1/51

INTERNET -- I eagerly downloaded and installed Skype with the need for videoconferencing. I am having all the problems I see others have. The operation of this App appears to be designed for programmers and hackers, as although I have used Mac OS since its inception, this is truly the worst implementation of a non-intuitive interface for a well-hyped App I have seen.

The reports are true. Download, install, be instantly lost and confused. Go to their "help" site forums, and blogs and find that there is no help there. Try googling or searching their site for customer service contact and discover there is no contact available. Try posting questions to the help boards and find the system will not even accept your post of a question or comment effectively cutting you off from any support whatsoever. Skype is a useless waste of time. Colloquially speaking, I fully agree: SKYPE SUCKS.

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Fraudulent Activity on Account

By suvoth99 - 11/01/2011

I have been a user of Skype and purchaser of their subscription services since 2008. I noticed that on October 15th, I was charged for a new subscription to Pakistan for $12.99. I subsequently changed my password on my account, removed my credit card and cancelled both my valid subscription and the fraudulent one. I contacted their customer service and asked them to remove the charge but they refused. I spoke to a ** at first and then escalated to a supervisor named **. Both advised me to contact my credit card company and told me they could not issue a refund to me even though I have never had an issue with my account before.

I have checked some of my credit card statements and do not see any other unauthorized charges. I advised them it was their program or website that was hacked but they still refuse to give me a refund. I even offered to let them close my account early (I still have until January 2012 for unlimited calls in the US and Canada) if they would simply refund the money owed to me, and still they refused. I don't even know anyone in Pakistan and whoever hacked my account used $2.00 of the $12.99 subscription.

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Skype Customer Service Is a Joke

By C3PO - 09/25/2010

I've used Skype off and on for years. Recently, I decided to go all out and get all their features and subscriptions. Their online menus suck. They advertise many things you can do in Skype, like "pick up your voicemails from anywhere in the world," but they tell you nothing about how to do it. I tried contacting customer support. This in itself was a joke. After a long search, I finally found the link to email Skype with my question/s. They did get back to me fairly quickly, but the answers I got had little or nothing to do with the problem stated.

Skype has a lot of really cool features and could be a very useful service, but they need to actually read the customer questions and send meaningful responses, as well as improve their online menus. I'd be willing to pay a bit more to help make this happen, but for now I'm not sure if I can deal with all the frustration.

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Skype Charging Me for Subscription That They Cancelled

By skypescrewedme - 02/12/2010

I somewhat recently had a notice from Skype in Dec. 2009, that my credit card was rejected due to expiration. Bear in mind that I was on auto-pay every three months. The message said that "your credit card has been denied due to expiration and your service will be terminated. This was fine with me because that I had accrued bonus credits for every three month purchase that I had made in the past. So I figured that before I give Skype my new credit card expiration date, I would use up my accrued credits and then buy another three months of the "unlimited U.S. and Canada" calling plan.

Here is the catch… I used the few dollars worth of credit that I had coming to me and no longer needed to make long distance calls. Since I no longer needed to make long distance calls, I would wait until someone out of state wanted to talk with me before I committed to another three months with Skype. My mother called me Jan. 30, 2010. I told my mother that I now would purchase Skype for a three month contract. She told me to use her credit card for the purchase since it would be cheaper for me to call her using Skype.

I then purchased a three month contract with Skype starting 01/30/10. Skype then sent me two e-mails saying thank you for your purchase of Skype in December of 2009. (This is the time the auto-pay was originally denied due to expiration of the credit card which resulted in expiration of unlimited calling.) Another e-mail was sent simultaneously that said, "thank you for your purchase of three months of Skype starting 01/30/2010. So, to sum up, Skype charged me for the time that my credit card was refused and I could no longer make unlimited U.S. and Canada calls back in Dec. 2009 and re-charged me again in Jan 2010.

So, in effect, I was charged $7.95 for 30 days of no-service, and another $8.20 for the new service starting Jan 30th, 2010. Customer service gave me credit for the five dollars and change and said they could not fix the problem because there is no invoice for December. Since I have an "unlimited calling plan" to U.S. and Canada, what good does five dollars worth of world-wide calling do me?

Bottom line is that Skype has no customer service that you can call. They have many customers. If you don't like their service, "screw you!!!" and they are not located in the U.S. so have fun using them! Caution, be very careful giving your credit card number to Skype. They will not be accountable for any charges that you deem as inappropriate. The company has grown so large that they do not care about any one individual. The only recourse you have is to air your complaints to U.S. citizens on multiple forums!!! Everything else falls on deaf ears.

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Horrible Customer Support!

By Amit - 05/08/2009

Skype is a great program that allows people to talk from their computer using the internet ANYWHERE in the world. It's amazing… until you use their paid services. Ironic, since this is how they make money. But yeah, every now and then the company will "block" your account. This is annoying, but what's more annoying is that there is no REAL person there to unblock it. You get these "bot" messages saying that your account will be reinstated shortly and it never is. Then you submit a new request and it seriously takes weeks to months for the problem to get solved.

I would pay double or triple the price just to have real customer support. I really would. The thing is they would probably get so many more customers and more money if they fixed these problems quickly rather than taking weeks to months and for all the customers they just straight up lose too. All that being said, in between customer support issues, it is a great service. If they can just fix that, they will thrive and I will continue to use them. Otherwise, I will probably stop once I come back from overseas.